M&A — Best Start to Year Since 2011

It’s been a shaky start to the year in the global stock and currency markets, but deal makers don’t seem to mind. Companies and funds inked $228.2 billion worth of acquisitions this month, the highest volume of activity since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters.

Going into trading Friday, all three stock indexes were on track to end the month down between 1.3% and 4.4%, and both U.S. and other global markets sank even further Friday.

Deal making volume is up 85% from January 2013 when all three indexes wrapped up January with gains between 4% and 6%. Yet all that could change quickly, and a big start to the year doesn’t necessarily translate into a big year for M&A.

By mid-February 2013, it looked like M&A was back in a big way — $40 billion worth of deals were announced on one day that month. Despite a 30% plus pop in stock indexes in 2013, M&A activity ended the year far below the pre-crisis peak years.

Still a big difference so far in 2014 is that overall deal making has been wide and deep — crossing industries and regions. Many of the big deals have been corporations buying up other corporations, and the stock market has mostly applauded buyers for making deals.

Cable consolidator John Malone is a key force behind two of the top three global deals and the largest one in the Netherlands. His firm Liberty Global also bid $10.9 billion for Dutch cable provider Ziggo NV, which pushed European M&A volume to $35.4 billion, up 21%, compared to a year ago and the strongest year for European M&A since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The winning banks so far? Morgan Stanley takes the top spot for announced global M&A. Credit Suisse is right behind Morgan Stanley. The bank served as an adviser to Lenovo on both of its $2 billion plus bids for U.S. companies in the past two weeks – Motorola Mobility and IBM 's low-end server business. Behind them: Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and then Citi. J.P. Morgan, typically a powerhouse deal maker, is in the 10th spot.